File Operations

Trek handles the full range of day-to-day file management tasks: creating, copying, moving, renaming, deleting, and organizing files. Most operations apply to the currently selected entry or to the current selection set.

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Opening Files

Input	Action
l / → / Enter	Enter a directory; for files, open in a new cmux tab (routes by file type — see below)
Right-click	Select the file and open it in a new cmux tab (same routing as l / Enter)
Double-click	Open the file in a new cmux pane split to the right (cmux new-pane --direction right); falls back to system opener for images and PDFs
o	Open in terminal editor — checks $VISUAL, then $EDITOR, then falls back to vi
O	Open with system default — open on macOS, xdg-open on Linux

File routing

When you press l, →, or Enter on a file, right-click a file, or double-click a file, Trek routes it based on type:

File type	l / Enter / right-click opens with	Double-click opens with
HTML (.html, .htm)	cmux embedded browser (cmux browser open)	cmux embedded browser
Images (.png, .jpg, .gif, etc.)	System default opener (open / xdg-open)	System default opener
PDFs (.pdf)	System default opener (open / xdg-open)	System default opener
All other text / code files	$EDITOR in a new cmux tab	$EDITOR in a new cmux pane split right

This requires Trek to be running inside cmux. When Trek is not running inside cmux, all three open methods show a hint in the status bar instead. Use o or O as alternatives in that case.

To copy a file's path to the clipboard instead of opening it, use y (relative path) or Y (absolute path) from the Yanking Paths section below.

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Creating Files and Directories

Key	Action
M	Create a new directory — opens an input bar; press Enter to confirm
t	Touch / create a new empty file
W	Duplicate the current entry in place — pre-fills the input bar with a suggested name (e.g. file_copy.txt)
L	Create a symlink to the current entry — pre-fills the entry name; the symlink is created at cwd/<name>

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Copying and Moving

Trek uses a clipboard model: copy or cut entries first, then paste them into the target directory after navigating there.

Key	Action
c	Copy the current entry to the clipboard
C	Copy all selected entries to the clipboard (displays total size)
x	Cut the current entry
X	Cut all selected entries
p	Paste clipboard contents into the current directory
F9	Open the clipboard inspector — shows queued items color-coded by operation (green = copy, yellow = cut); press p inside to paste, Esc to close

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Deleting

Key	Action
Delete	Trash the current entry — requires confirmation
u	Undo the last trash operation

Bulk deletion: select entries first (see Selection below), then press Delete or X to trash them all.

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Renaming

Key	Action
n / F2	Quick rename — opens an inline input bar pre-filled with the current name
P	Edit file permissions — opens an octal chmod input bar

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Selection

Build a selection set before running bulk operations like copy or cut.

Key	Action
Space	Toggle selection on the current entry
J (Shift+J)	Select current entry and move cursor down (range select)
K (Shift+K)	Select current entry and move cursor up (range select)
v	Select all files in the current directory
Esc	Clear all selections (when no search filter is active)

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Yanking Paths

Copy file paths to the system clipboard using OSC 52 (works in most modern terminals):

Key	Action
y	Yank the relative path
Y	Yank the absolute path
A	Open the path format picker — choose from r (relative), a (absolute), f (filename only), or p (parent directory)

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Bookmarks

Bookmarks save directories to disk and persist across Trek sessions. They are stored in ~/.local/share/trek/.

Key	Action
b + letter	Save the current directory as a bookmark at that letter slot
B + letter	Jump to the saved bookmark at that letter slot

For temporary, session-only location pinning, use marks instead. See Navigation — Marks vs. Bookmarks for the distinction.